Sales Success

The survey shows 40% of study participants prefer a salesperson who listens, understands, then matches their solution to solve a specific problem. Another 30% prefer a salesperson who earns their trust by making them feel comfortable.

Buyers aren’t necessarily fixated on the market leader and are more than willing to select second-tier competitors than one might expect. In fact, only 33% of participants prefer the best-known brand with the highest functionality and cost.

A B2B buyers' higher negative rating of salespeople is inversely related to a department’s tolerance for risk; for example, IT buyers rated 37% of all salespeople as poor - higher than any other department - while their risk tolerance was a low 5 out of 10.

There’s a reason that the average lifespan of an SDR is two years. Sales is hard. Anthony Johnson began his career with a lot of enthusiasm. But over the next two years, as one of just three SDRs, his enthusiasm faded. As a husband and father of infant twins, Johnson had a lot on the line - but he was burned out, and mentally checked out. And it showed.

What’s a little friendly cold call competition? It was an ordinary Tuesday morning for two salesmen … except that Robert is feeling a little extra competitive with his cold call skills. “Smell that?” he asks. “It smells like sales.” In fact, it smells like selling five deals by happy hour. The gauntlet is thrown down. Dan

Imagine your inbox on an average Monday morning. Now quintuple it. Yeah, CIOs get a lot of email. One CIO said that over 50% of his inbox was communication from vendors! How can a great solution stand out when the inbox is standing-room only?